I, Pino

Just watching the movie I,Robot and it got me thinking of my toy robot PINO. I bought it in 2005, got it out the box once and attempted the basic imprinting. It cried when I left it alone and I just couldn't cope with deep droid sadness so back in the box it went [I wonder if that was a common experience?]. It's been in the attic ever since, six long lonely years!

The toy was marketed as a stranded being thus: " PINO lost his memory after his spaceship crashed to earth. Now he's alone and needs your care and attention. Look after PINO and be rewarded with fun and friendship as his personality grows.'

PINO's three ages reminded a little back then of Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics. Pino's ages were:

Age 1 - Pino displays basic emotions, sings songs and talks with other Pinos.
Age 2 - Pino displays a full range of emotions, walks, plays games (dancing Pino, Pino room guard, DJ pino, Program Pino, Pino's guessing games),responds to sound, light, infra red.
Age 3 - Pino now has a fully developed personality (either Friendly, Shy or Naughty).

I always wondered what would happen of 100 Pino's were placed in an empty room and switched on. Would they self-imprint and 'age' each other?

Anyone alse got a Pino story? Has the technology moved on from 2005?

Art 1

The Edge of Reason

CALLIST-O-MATIC

All Bases Bulletin

....Personnel alert....Moonbase wetware rebooted....Blogadier Woodsy returning from Titan shore-leave....Commander Wotan awarded 100 creds for Mars Base personell night out on the pleasure moon of Callisto...stop.

Home on the Range

Rocketpunch sent me this fabulous You Tube clip of the Japanese NICHIMO kit which clearly inspired the SWORD Moon Ranger! Its not got the familiar dozer blade and appears to be amphibious too, judging by the twin rudders and prop! Watch and be amazed!

The models owner akasikogorou has a load of other fabulous vids of rare kits too!

Radar Love

Following on from the Marx article and the missing radar scanners, I wondered where the idea for the multi dish array came from and if it in fact originated in the Marx Moon Scouts. The bubble canopied crawler sports a large silver radar dish with several disks on it and a similar design has appeared on other sixties toys as well.

NON FALL MOONBUGGY

APOLLO MOON EX CRUISER WITH SILVER RADAR

SPACEX APOLLO TRACKER

SPACEX CRICKET AND CUSTOMISED TRACKER

Notable examples are the Non Fall Moon Buggy and the later Spacex Apollo Tracker. Does the concept originate in TV21 or a similar field ? It surely cant work on a practical basis as the dishes would occlude each other. Anyone seen anything similar ?

Marx Grab Bag

If I think of the sixties in terms of space toys, besides the obvious, the main toys I think of would be Mattels Major Matt Mason and Marx Moon Grabbers. A regular feature in toy shop displays, these rugged little trucks were often seen charging about stores as the shops demonstrated their climbing ability. Along with the clapping monkeys, hopping rabbits and crawling soldiers, there was inevitably one of the Marx Hill Climbing range to be seen rolling happily about until it bumped into a parents' foot or was snatched up by an enthusiastic child and sent rolling off into another department.

The basis of the trucks was a heavy duty four wheel drive chassis which appeared as the drive for cement mixers, dumpers and jeeps through Marx production years, such was the success of the design. But for me, the attraction lay in the Moon Scout series or Moon Grabbers which were all adorned with cool articulated arms and massive chrome scanners. The three basic designs were inspired by NASA Molab concepts with large chunky bodies and big wheels. The series saw a variety of colour schemes, but the first ones were uniformly white. A large set appeared in the states which also added trailers to the vehicles carrying equipment and even a space helicopter. The Marx range also included an odd and apparently unrelated Moon Scout Nasa Helicopter, battery powered with flashing lights and bump and go actions.

 Oddly, the large battery powered toys also saw production in small sets like the Apollo Moon Exploring, with a small vehicle, moon rocks and a handful of astronauts. Four sets were made, each one had a small handpainted model of the Moon Scouts and the fourth set had an unusual space tank. The box art has paintings of spaceships lifted directly out of the Ladybird book 'Exploring Space' which has been in circulation since the mid sixties too.

 The Moon Scouts were always a staple in the Marx catalogue leaflets along with other cool toys such as the Nike Missile Launcher and Amphibious Truck.

Over the years ive picked up one or two of these vehicles as they never quite made the xmas list for me as a boy, but each one is always uniformly missing the chrome radar scanners, which for me were always a fascinating part.

Little something for the weekend

 Searching the Wotan Archives this morning for a certain catalogue, I came across a loose page in amongst the reams of Airfix, Matchbox and other sundry booklets. My dad had always been a bit of a magpie and this was evidence of his acquisitive habits. A single page from an old Littlewoods mail order catalogue, the UK equivalent of Penney and Sears, he obviously saw something here that merited further study. Probably it was the rather excellent Corgi Rocket Age set on the first page, showing the Thunderbird and Bloodhound ground to air missiles. Judging by the pre-decimal prices the catalogue would have been around 1964-66 and almost certainly the Xmas edition. Also featured is the Merit Radio Station which was marketed as a Dan Dare product and a range of what look like Wells Brimtoy army vehicles.

The second side has the Ideal Satellite Launcher Truck, a large vehicle with flying spinners and a cool Missile Truck with darts and searchlight. Those were the days!